Her due date was Monday, September 19th and due to her small measurements on ultrasound Dr. Anya decided to induce me a week later, Monday, September 26th, if she had not come on her own yet. Needless to say she was cozy in there so I had to be induced. September 25 was kind of a surreal day for us. We knew that she was coming the next day, no matter what. We enjoyed the last bit of time together as a family of 2 (plus Lily) and enjoyed a late lunch at Cracker Barrel. The rest of the afternoon we just stayed around home and relaxed.
When you are induced they have you come into the hospital the night before to have blood taken, an IV placed, and Cervidil administered. The nurse was to call us to come in sometime after 7. I felt like it couldn't come fast enough. Sure enough at around 7:15 she called to let us know they were ready for us and we could go in anytime. Even though we knew what was coming, that phone call made it even more real. So we finished up some last minute things and I grabbed a sandwich to eat on the way. We headed to the hospital, arriving around 8:30. They immediately told me to go up the elevator to a little waiting room. After about 5 minutes the nurse came to take us to our labor and delivery room. She asked us some questions, drew my blood, put the IV in my arm to start me on fluids, and attached monitors to my stomach. Later Dr. Anya came in to administer the Cervidil. All that took probably less than 2 hours, pretty speedy I thought. We tried to relax a little and wind down for bed, much easier said than done at this point. My IV line was attached along with 2 monitors to measure contractions and Adelaide's heartbeat so I couldn't get that comfy in the hospital bed. The nurse offered to bring me some meds to help me sleep. I tried for a while without it and then just decided that a good night's rest was what I needed so I took the meds. They worked great and I woke up the next morning around 7 to get ready for the induction to begin.
The induction itself was pretty unexciting. The new nurse, Sonja, came in and started the Pitocin drip around 7:30 or so. Here we go! Earlier I had asked for a box of dry Cheerios from the night nurse even though I had heard from friends they usually don't give you food until after the baby is born... good thing I had the sandwich on the way to the hospital. She said she could probably get me something since. However, Sonja came in saying she knew the night nurse said I could have something but that I really wasn't supposed to have anything other than ice, water, and popsicles. Maybe she could tell I was a little disappointed and said that she would check with the doctor though. Now it was Dr. Gunter, and he agreed to let me have Cheerios. I was so thankful and savored each one not knowing when I would get to eat again.
At the start of the Pitocin I was only dilated 1-2 cm. What a long way to go! Most of the morning we just talked and relaxed some more. My mom and Haydyn came up to visit and chat a while. My dad was having a procedure done at Wake Med while I was at Rex, too bad we weren't at the same hospital. Sonja came in periodically to check and get a pain score from me. I didn't like to have to rate the pain because since this was the first time I had ever been in labor I didn't know how bad it could get. I didn't want to say the pain was a 5 out of 10 if it really wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. She talked with me a bit and said that she would say a 5 was where I couldn't talk through the contraction and could only breath through it. To her, a 10 was a C-section without any anesthesia, yikes. The later it got I could feel the contractions a little more, but definitely nothing I couldn't handle at this point, I told Sonja around a 2 pain score based on her descriptions.
Brandon's parents arrived around 11 or 11:30 and they came up to visit as well. I remember his mom saying that I was still talking and smiling through the contractions and to enjoy it. Oh boy, what was coming?! Around noon Sonja checked me again and I had progressed to 4 cm or so. I had asked her earlier how long it would take to get an epidural if I decided to get it. She said it would take about 30 minutes so I kept that in mind as the time passed on. Around 12:45 or so she said that she thought if Dr. Gunter were to break my water I would progress a little faster. I agreed and around 1:00 he came in to break it. From then on progress definitely occurred.
My pain during contractions got much worse. They were already coming fairly regularly every 1-2 minutes but the pain intensified to a definite 5, if not more. I didn't want to speak, look at anything, or think about anything else other than getting to the end of each contraction. It must be noted that during these intense contractions a guy had to come into the room and work on the computer system. He said it would only take about 5 minutes so there was no way that I wouldn't have a contraction. Brandon asked if he could wait, but for whatever reason he couldn't. Also, a lady with a menu came by and talked with me about food. While I was in the middle of intense labor she was trying to show me the menu and I couldn't even have anything to eat. I wanted to grab that menu and hit her over the head with it... craziness! Back to the contractions, Brandon was such a huge part of me getting through the labor. He would look at the contraction monitor and tell me when the contraction was ending. That was so helpful, except for when we were tricked and it would peak again without completely stopping. He was there on the side of my bed letting me squeeze his hand to my little heart's content. His poor hand and the bed rail took the brunt of things. It was during this time of not knowing how long this would last (would it be a few hours or many hours?) that I decided to get an epidural. After all, I wasn't trying to win a medal I just wanted to have a baby. Around 2:30, after intense contractions every minute or so for an hour and a half, I asked Sonja to prep things for an epidural. She called the anesthesiologist and, sure enough, Dr. Hansen came in to do the epidural around 3:00. They made Brandon sit in a chair off to the side where he couldn't see the needle. Sonja stood in front of me and let me squeeze her during contractions. The epidural itself didn't hurt, but the Lidocaine block beforehand felt like a bee sting. It took about 10 minutes for me to feel pretty good relief from the contractions. They say it affects one side more than the other and with me it was my left side because I could feel the numbing sensation more on that side and I had a hard time moving my left leg. Dr. Hansen did a wonderful job and I was so thankful to have some relief.
So with the epidural going I got some much appreciated quiet time and rested a little. The whole labor I liked the lights dim and didn't care one thing about turning on the TV, which I am a little surprised about since there wasn't a whole lot else I could do because of my IV and monitors. Anyway, around 5:45 or so I started feeling pain again. This really worried me because of all the crazy stories I had heard about where the epidural stops working. I immediately got anxious because I had been 2.5 hours with little to no pain. When Sonja came back in to check on me I told her about the pain. She asked if I thought it was pressure because you still feel pressure with epidurals. Again, I had never felt all of this before so I wasn't sure how to gauge what this was that I was feeling. She checked me and I was around 5 cm or so. She left out and came back a few minutes later and I knew at this point it was pain not pressure. She then drew up some extra meds Dr. Hansen left and put it into my fluid bag for my epidural. After 5 minutes or so I was still feeling the same pain so she hurriedly broke open another vial and pulled it up into a syringe to bolus it straight into my line, not even worrying with the bag this time. Ah, finally relief!
By this time it was probably 6:15 or so and she decided to check me again. I had progressed to 9.5 cm, almost ready to push! We were all floored, but I guess that's what happens when you feel pain through your epidural. She was hurrying around getting things ready telling me I was going to push soon! So we went from "could be a long while still" to "pushing soon". Talk about a swing of emotions. I remember just lying there in the bed crying with my hands over my face. I really had no specific reason to cry, other than we were about to meet our daughter. Sonja was worried that I was in pain again, but nope just very emotional. She checked me once more and sure enough I was at 10 cm. She mentioned that if we had family in the waiting room that we could call them and tell them I was beginning to push but that it could still be atleast 2 hours. So, Brandon called down to his parents, Mama, and Haydyn to tell them the exciting progress.
Now comes the pushing, something else I'd never done before and wasn't really sure how to do. Friends had told me I would know when to push so I took their word for it. And, they were right. I felt the urge to push and just went with it. After about 10 minutes of hard pushing with Brandon's encourgment Sonja said "just give a half push this time!". What in the world is a half push? Half the time or half the push? Oh well, I did both. She said she had to get Dr. Gunter because the baby was coming!! What?! That quickly? She said it could be 2 hours and it had only been a few minutes! Dr. Gunter came in fast and after pushing with him for about 5 more minutes Adelaide Grace Pearson was born at 7:07 pm. The most amazing experience in this world.
She was perfect. She looked like a little baby girl version of Brandon, it was unreal. They placed her on my stomach immediately after Brandon cut the cord and it hit me, our daughter was here. She had gotten here safely and she was healthy. After I held her for a few seconds they took her to get her weight/length and clean her up a bit. She was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 3/4 in. They wrapped her up and gave her back to us and we took our first family pictures. It was amazing to see her react to our voices. She would stare at Brandon with amazement when he was holding her and talking to her. We had heard babies are usually very alert when they are born and she definitely was taking it all in. Brandon went down to get our families and bring them up to meet her. He still didn't tell them her name until they all got into the room and then I spilled the beans. It was so much fun for them to finally hear our sweet girl's name. Shortly after, they took her again to give her a good bath and soon we headed out of the labor and delivery room into our post-partum room. Whew what an amazing day it was!
